A building on Market and Dolores Streets has plans to be developed on Tuesday June 30, 2009 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

A building on Market and Dolores Streets has plans to be developed...

Image 2 of 5

Last week, shoring and excavation work was being conducted at Market and Dolores streets, where the S&C Ford once stood. In its place, by September of next year, will be an 82-unit residential complex anchored by a 30,000 square-foot Whole Foods.

Photo: Prado Group

Last week, shoring and excavation work was being conducted at...

Image 3 of 5

Some 22,000 housing units are in various stages of development in San Francisco, primarily in the South of Market and Mission Bay neighborhoods. The driver: an ever-growing stream of tech employees who want to live where they work Ñ and will be able to pay quite the rent when these apartments start opening in the next year or so. Here a halted construction at 1844 Market Street for a 113 unit building in San Francisco Calif., March 16, 2012.
Jason Henry/Special to The Chronicle

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

Some 22,000 housing units are in various stages of development in...

Image 4 of 5

1844 Market will have 113 new apartments, along with 5,500 square feet of retail space and an underground garage, will have been built on the corner of Market and Octavia streets, where a small retail center used to be.

We can't say if Market Street will ever become "San Francisco's Champs-Élysées," as former Mayor Gavin Newsomonce envisioned, but there are major changes afoot. And we're not just talking about Mid-Market, which has garnered much of the attention lately.

Further west, on the other side of Civic Center, a veritable construction boom is taking place.

Last week, shoring and excavation work was being conducted at Market and Dolores streets, where S&C Ford once stood. In its place, by September of next year, will be an 82-unit residential complex anchored by a 30,000-square-foot Whole Foods.

Two months later, assuming construction remains on schedule, 113 new apartments, along with 5,500 square feet of retail space and an underground garage, will have been built at Market and Octavia streets, where a small retail center used to be.

One block away, at a former Union 76 gas station at Market and Buchanan, ground will be broken this month on another mixed-use development, this one featuring 115 apartments.

All told there are five projects, accounting for approximately 450 new rental units, under construction or in the groundbreaking stage on Market Street between Castro and Octavia.

"It's not near the size and scale of Mid-Market, but we're going to see a lot more people on the street, during the day and at night, which is really good for the area," said Dan Safier, president of San Francisco's Prado Group, which is developing the Market and Dolores project.

In particular, the relatively empty area between Dolores and Octavia "will become a much more significant hub of the neighborhood," said San Francisco SupervisorScott Wiener, who represents the district. With the accompanying new streetscaping, "it will be much more walkable and vibrant."

With several more mixed-use projects in the planning and permit pipeline, Upper Market will have up to 1,500 new rental units in the next five years, says Peter Cohen, board member of the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, which keeps close tabs on commercial development in the area. "And there'll be a lot of new retail coming online," he said.

CVS/pharmacy, which has one outlet on nearby Castro Street, is taking over a larger space at Market and Noe in early 2014. Add that to its existing Market Street store, at Third Street, and a third, scheduled to open in August, at Market and Second.

Starbucks is seeking a permit to open up at Market and Sanchez streets. Another beverage chain, Los Angeles-based The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, has signed a letter of intent to open a store over the road from the future CVS/pharmacy, above Gold's Gym.

Bank of the West, meanwhile, is looking to open a 3,300-square-foot branch to fill what locals refer to as "the Hole-in-the Ground" - a 31-year-old vacant lot - at Market and 16th streets, the site of another mixed-used development in progress. On the eastern end of the strip, the San Francisco regional bank - owned by France's BNP Paribas - is scheduled to open a "wealth management client center" at 555 Market St. in the Financial District next month.

However, the bank is getting pushback from residents concerned about the amount of "formula retail" entering the neighborhood. A permit hearing scheduled for last Thursday before the city's Planning Commission was put off until July 12.

As welcome as the developments on Upper Market are, said Cohen, there's also concern that rents, already formidably high, will increase even more and change the residential makeup of the neighborhood.

"One of the consequences may be further gentrification," he said. "I'm just offering a cautionary note."